Ethan Gage Books in Order

The Ethan Gage novels are historical adventures set during the Napoleonic era, beginning in 1798 and moving through the early years of the nineteenth century. Their hero is Ethan Gage, an American gambler, sharpshooter, and former apprentice of Benjamin Franklin. He is smart, restless, and not always noble, but he has a talent for surviving situations that should finish him.

It usually starts with an artifact, a rumor, or a favor that seems manageable.

In Napoleon's Pyramids, Gage wins a mysterious medallion in Paris and is swept into Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt. The series then follows him through the Holy Land, the American frontier, North Africa, the Caribbean, France, Central Europe, Russia, and Constantinople. Along the way, he encounters famous figures, military campaigns, spies, scientists, inventors, pirates, and people with strong reasons to keep old secrets buried.

Gage's relationship with Astiza, an Egyptian woman with formidable knowledge and instincts of her own, gives the series its emotional center. Their lives become increasingly tangled with the era's wars and rivalries, and their son Harry eventually becomes part of the ongoing story as well. The books build on earlier events, especially the first four, so reading in publication order gives the family story and recurring enemies more weight.

The historical setting matters here. Napoleon's campaigns, the race for empire, new machines, archaeology, and the political aftermath of revolution are not just wallpaper. Dietrich uses them to create problems for Gage, whether he is caught between French and British agents, sent toward a battlefield, or asked to find something that could shift power between nations.

Expect a lively mix of swashbuckling action, mystery, humor, and speculative historical puzzles. The series makes room for lost books, ancient relics, strange technology, alchemy, and legends, but it keeps returning to a very human problem: Gage has to decide whom he can trust when every side wants to use him.

He is never entirely in control of the adventure.

Readers who want the fullest experience should begin with Napoleon's Pyramids. It introduces Gage, Astiza, and the balance of historical detail, danger, and wisecracking narration that carries through The Trojan Icon. Individual installments can be enjoyable on their own, but this is a journey with consequences, and the best payoff comes from following Gage from the start.